The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting that Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), a pro-life leader in the Senate, will likely oppose the Stupak abortion amendment. Casey’s office issued a press statement clarifying that the Senator supports preserving the status quo on abortion coverage:

Senator Casey has been a vocal supporter of health care reform and voted for the HELP Committee bill in July. He supports the public option to increase competition and reduce costs. And he is offering amendments to improve health care for children. Senator Casey thinks that health care reform should not be used to change longstanding policies regarding federal financing of abortion which has been in place since 1976.

He continues to work with his colleagues in the Senate and with the White House to ensure that the Senate health care reform bill protects existing federal and state conscience protections, existing state abortion laws and contains strong language to prohibit federal funds from being used to fund abortions. He voted for amendments in the HELP Committee that would maintain neutrality on abortion. Until Senate bill language is released it is premature to discuss next steps.

The existing abortion language in the Senate bill maintains the status quo by ensuring that federal dollars can only be used to pay for abortions when the pregnancy threatens life of mother or results from rape or incest. Only private premiums could be used to pay for so-called ‘elective’ abortions.

Democrats believe that pro-life advocates would not be able to muster the requisite 60 votes to pass a more restrictive amendment that would make it difficult for many private plans to provide abortion coverage. “If someone wants to offer this very radical amendment, which would really tear apart [a decades-long] compromise, then I think at that point they would need to have 60 votes to do it,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said during a recent interview with the Huffington Post. “And I believe in our Senate we can hold it.” On Monday, President Obama also indicated that he wanted to preserve the status quo on abortion coverage.

Casey’s statement, while promising, does not guarantee that the Senator won’t vote for a bill that includes stricter abortion restrictions. During the Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee’s (HELP)’s mark-up, Casey provided the only Democratic vote to at least four anti-choice amendments, all of which ultimately failed. One such amendment — offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) — closely resembled the Stupak provision.

If the Senate bill retains its current abortion compromise, it’s likely that the conference report will include similar language. Already, 41 House Democrats have sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), vowing to vote against the final conference report if it contains the Stupak amendment.

Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.

Last month, 30 Republican senators voted against Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) amendment that would punish defense contractors “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” His amendment was inspired by Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang-raped by her co-workers while working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad in 2005, and then had to fight her employer for justice.

The GOP senators who sided with defense contractors at the expense of women — such as John Thune (SD) — have been facing an intense backlash. David Vitter (LA) refused to give a rape victim a straight answer when she confronted him about his vote, claiming that he is “absolutely supportive of any [rape] case like that being prosecuted criminally to the full extent of the law.”

Politico reports that Republicans are now scratching their heads at why the public is so incensed about their “no” votes:

Privately, GOP sources acknowledge that they failed to anticipate the political consequences of a “no” vote on the amendment. And several aides said that Republicans are engaged in an internal blame game about why they agreed to a roll-call vote on the measure, rather than a simple voice vote that would have allowed the opposing senators to duck criticism.

As BarbinMD writes, “Seriously? They voted against an amendment that was prompted by the brutal gang-rape of a young woman by her co-workers while she was working for a company under contract for the United States government, after which she was locked in a shipping container without food or water, threatened if she left to seek medical treatment, and was then prevented from bringing criminal charges against her assailants. And they failed to anticipate the political consequences?”

Thune is also claiming that Franken doesn’t really care about Jones and other rape victims whose employers have blocked them from seeking justice; he and other Democrats just wanted to “create a vote which they could use to attack Republicans.”

So basically, the only lesson they learned is that next time, they have to hide their votes when they decide to screw over women’s rights. That way, they can support their allies in the contracting business and the public will never find out.